A TEMPTATION: A DANCE WITH DEATH

My Hero

I still can see the flashes of red and blue echo in my mind. I can't believe all of that just happened right before my eyes, let alone watch some man murder my father; I understand he was in the wrong. He attempted to rob the bank and even harm a little girl, but he had already fallen to the ground after a heart attack! You don't need to fire more! I yelled in my mind, wanting to scream, but all that would escape my throat was.

"Why did he think that was smart..." My heart was racing as officers took my father away in an ambulance, leaving me there to watch the whole scene as the news showed up with the rest of the cops.

"Ma'am, May I talk with you? You did see the whole thing." One of the Officers came up to me dressed in black with a gun placed down at his side. He looked at me, trying to move me away from the situation, but I didn't want to go. I felt like I should stay. It was the last time I'd seen my father alive, and yet it seemed so unreal what he did. He was my hero, and it did this. It took his own life.

"I guess... sure." I walked with the officer, my eyes not being able to leave the spot where

I saw the man fire at my father. I felt rage but also thought that it was strange that my father had just had a heart attack like that. He was a healthy man, completely and utterly healthy; how could he just drop death like nothing happened? His heart just stopped. I followed the officer till we got behind the cop car as he pulled out a notepad.

"Did you see the whole scene, miss?" He asked as I watched his hand move with the notepad he wrote down my answers. I can't tell them the man that attacked was my father, or I would be just as much trouble.

"Yeah, I did. The man got out of his car and stormed into the bank, and well, the rest of it was what happened," I said, not wanting to make my father look like an awful man. What he has done can't be forgiven. He's not a horrible man, but he took the gun. He tried to do something wrong even if he wanted to do the right thing for me; it was just the wrong way.

"Did you happen to see the man's face?" The officer asked, writing down any response I

give him.

"No, I didn't. The man was facing away from me," I replied, trying to lie the best I could, trying to keep everything together and act as if I wasn't hurt, like I was just shaken up by a stranger trying to rob a bank. Not my father, who died in front of me, caused me to want to break down and cry. I'm left alone; I won't be able to pay for my apartment or anything else, for that matter, or college. I have to figure out what to do; I can't just break down yet; I have to think of something.

"Well, if you find out anything or remember anything, call me." The man handed me his card as he left off in his car, leaving me in the street miles from home as the new station blasted in front of the bank. It's out now. My father robbed a bank, and I just lied to the cops, saying I knew nothing about it, and in a sense, I didn't. I never knew my father planned to do something like this, but it would hang over my head like an angel's halo.

"Yeah, will do," I mumbled after he had already left, looking down at the man's card. It was professional, I'll give him that, but I had to make it home without a car because the officers took the vehicle my father drove him, not to mention sneaking past the new station that was questioning anyone they could find that was on the scene. I took light steps, walking behind the camera people to stay once out of ear sight and two, eye view.

"On a Thursday afternoon, the Bank of Western Lotus was robbed even though no money was taken, all but the innocence of a little girl and the life of a man," The new lady spoke as I made my way back to the street walking down. The way they talked about my father made my blood boil. He wasn't the wrong man. He was my hero, but he'll always be seen in a horrible light now, and I will have to deal with that forever. I am so dirt poor that my father took his life trying to rob a bank. At least that's what the news is going to say, and not the fact that he had a heart attack. I walked home to my apartment for the time being. I decided to call Kasai one more time. Maybe some good news or a shoulder to cry on would be excellent. I took my phone out as the dial tone filled the open air, the silence ruined by the sound.

"Hello?" A woman picked up her voice, and it sounded like she'd been crying for hours. It made my heart sink, almost breaking the wall I put up for the time being.

"Hello, is Kasai there?" I asked, confused. I've never spoken to my friend's parents, let alone one who was crying her eyes out.

"Oh sweetheart... He passed away this morning from a heart attack." I wanted to cry more; the only two people I trusted, or even one, was a new friend of mine, but how did they both pass away from a heart attack? They both were healthy; I couldn't respond. All I did was hang up the phone and keep walking. My mind was racing both from the logical standpoint and the emotion that was roaring through my eyes, wanting to break free for me to cry myself to death for something, but I refused.

***

My apartment was cold as if the color was sucked out of the room, leaving me to feel like I'd been shipped to an insane asylum like I was the problem, and I was starting to think I was the problem. Everything seemed to be wrong, from the stress of my class to the tuition and struggle with money to the death of a classmate and now even the death of my father.

"What am I going to do shit!" I screamed, not caring if my downstairs neighbor heard I had a problem that would not be fixed. I am left alone for good now, but I can't sit around and just cry. I have to be the adult, even if I was one. Just now, I don't have a plan B. All I have is plan A, and right now, I have to find out what happened to my Father, and doing that is checking the hospital. Maybe they'll call me and record his death like how most hospitals do to tax the dead or something like that. I leaned to the back of the door, thinking, grabbing my Macbook, and looking up the reason for Heart attacks. Even though what I've found can happen to anyone at any time but it was almost spot on, as if something targeted my Father and Kasai. I grabbed my remote and turned the TV on to the news that replayed the evening, showing that the news was inside the bank live when my Father was killed. Everyone saw him before his heart attack. Anyone could have targeted him and even Kasai, But who would want them dead.